Ice cooled beverage dispensers incorporate cold plates for cooling beverage components as they flow through serpentine pathways therein. The cold plate normally has tubes or coils of a suitable material, such as stainless steel, imbedded in a heat conducting casting, such as an aluminum casting which can be several inches thick. Cold plates have been utilized to chill conventional carbonators. The cold plate cools the carbonator unit by conduction such that the water within the carbonator unit is also chilled as it flows therethrough. Dispensed carbonation levels decrease as the temperature in the carbonator tank increase. Up until now, carbonator tanks in contact with the cold plate are arranged in a horizontal lay out. There are a variety of disadvantages to this arrangement including inconsistent carbonation levels.